Amazon's LotR show - first look

[Hussar]

Just wrote a post on this subject.

Can they get sufficiently gifted writers to emulate a proper Tolkien feel?

Over-analyzing individual images might be a fun exercise but will ultimately tell us nothing.

So, a proper Tolkien feel would be a story where for fifteen hours nothing really happens and then we have three minutes of anything of actual importance?

Oh, I know, maybe we'll have songs. Yay. Let's all get together for Tolkien karaoke.

I'm so deeply pessimistic about this. No matter what they do, people will endlessly bitch about how they are not "getting Tolkien". Not the actual books mind you, but this cult of personality that fans have built in their heads over the years. This is going to be one long, glorious disaster.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So, a proper Tolkien feel would be a story where for fifteen hours nothing really happens and then we have three minutes of anything of actual importance?

Oh, I know, maybe we'll have songs. Yay. Let's all get together for Tolkien karaoke.

I'm so deeply pessimistic about this. No matter what they do, people will endlessly bitch about how they are not "getting Tolkien". Not the actual books mind you, but this cult of personality that fans have built in their heads over the years. This is going to be one long, glorious disaster.

Whilst there will no doubt be hardcore fans who will complain bitterly about it no matter how it is implemented, the vast majority of the target audience have never read Fellowship, never mind Silmarillion, and will judge the show simply on face value: is it entertaining?

 

[Zardnaar]

Whilst there will no doubt be hardcore fans who will complain bitterly about it no matter how it is implemented, the vast majority of the target audience have never read Fellowship, never mind Silmarillion, and will judge the show simply on face value: is it entertaining?

This is my position. I don't rate Tolkeins books that highly.

 

[CapnZapp]

Plenty of people have done well writing original stories set in established settings.

Absolutely.

But my belief is

Etablished setting ---> original written story ---> tv script​

tends to be superior to

Etablished setting ---> tv script​

So I guess my point still stands.

 

[CapnZapp]

So, a proper Tolkien feel would be a story where for fifteen hours nothing really happens and then we have three minutes of anything of actual importance?

Oh, I know, maybe we'll have songs. Yay. Let's all get together for Tolkien karaoke.

I'm so deeply pessimistic about this. No matter what they do, people will endlessly bitch about how they are not "getting Tolkien". Not the actual books mind you, but this cult of personality that fans have built in their heads over the years. This is going to be one long, glorious disaster.

Why do you care? Why be pessimistic if you feel "proper Tolkien feel" equals nothing happening? Why then just not walk away and watch something else?

 

[CapnZapp]

This is my position. I don't rate Tolkeins books that highly.

You're not even spelling his name correctly so that checks out.

 

[CapnZapp]

Whilst there will no doubt be hardcore fans who will complain bitterly about it no matter how it is implemented, the vast majority of the target audience have never read Fellowship, never mind Silmarillion, and will judge the show simply on face value: is it entertaining?

Yes.

Not that "most people won't care" is a good argument to make a generic fantasy show, with or without tits and dragons.

I mean, why then shell out, what was it, a quarter of a [Stephen Colbert voice]billion dollars[/Stephen Colbert voice] on a specific IP?

 

[Hussar]

Whilst there will no doubt be hardcore fans who will complain bitterly about it no matter how it is implemented, the vast majority of the target audience have never read Fellowship, never mind Silmarillion, and will judge the show simply on face value: is it entertaining?

I have to admit, after watching the s***show that has been Star Wars for the past ten years, never minding other properties, I am nowhere near that optimistic. One can always hope though.

 

[Hussar]

Why do you care? Why be pessimistic if you feel "proper Tolkien feel" equals nothing happening? Why then just not walk away and watch something else?

Oh, trust me I'm going to. I'd rather chew glass than watch this show to be honest. I have absolutely zero interest in it. Fandom has murdered any joy I used to take in Tolkien. Now, it's just something to be ignored. I managed to completely ignore A Song of Fire and Ice for exactly the same reason that this completely turns me off - the fandom. Listening to endless kvetching about how they did this or that wrong has pretty much soured me on virtually any large production like this. You fans have won. You can have it. Me, I'll be off over here enjoying something else where I don't have to wade through endless poison that makes me want to wash my eyes out with bleach every time it gets talked about.

It's a shame really. I truly loved Tolkien back in the day. But, now? After watching trufans take steaming dumps over every other mainstream property? No thanks. I'll pass.

 

[MarkB]

Absolutely.

But my belief is

Etablished setting ---> original written story ---> tv script​

tends to be superior to

Etablished setting ---> tv script​

So I guess my point still stands.

I can't say I share that belief, but there's no point in just throwing examples and counter-examples at each other, so let's just agree to disagree.